Supporters of the civil unions bill rally Monday morning on the west steps of the Capitol before the special legislative session began. Giving full consideration to the civil unions bill was a key reason why Gov. John Hickenlooper called the special session.

Jessie Pocock, far right, from One Colorado, gets a hug Monday from Daniel Ramos after hearing that thecivil unions bill died. The House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee shot down the bill on a 5-4vote along party lines, stopping it from getting to the House floor, where it likely would have passed. Thebill was killed on the first day of the General Assembly's special session.

A legislative special session to give the issue of civil unions for same-sex couples more time for debate didn’t produce a different outcome Monday, though it did ratchet up partisan tensions.

Legislation to create civil unions died even faster during the special session that began Monday than it did during the regular session that ended last week. The House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee shot down the bill on a 5-4 party-line vote, stopping it from getting to the House floor, where it likely would have passed, with a handful of Republicans joining Democrats.

Even committee member Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, who has a gay son, said he couldn’t vote for the bill. He cited the 2006 vote by Coloradans to ban gay marriage.

“What you’re asking me to do here is invalidate the vote of six years ago,” Coram said. “I’m concerned that the gay community is being used as a political pawn. For four years we had a Democrat governor, a Democrat House and a Democrat Senate. The issue never came up. It only came up when we got a split house.

“I think that’s wrong.”

But Alex Hornaday, treasurer of the Denver County Republicans and vice president of the Log Cabin Republicans, said GOP lawmakers, who hold a tenuous 33-32 majority in the House and who have designs on retaking the Democratic-controlled Senate, may have shot themselves in the foot.

“I’m afraid what happened last week has already doomed our razor-thin majority in the House,” Hornaday said, referring to procedural wrangling that kept the bill from coming to a vote in the House despite there being enough votes to pass it.

Monday morning, House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, sent the bill to the state affairs panel, known as a “kill committee” because its members are in safe seats and can shoot down controversial bills with little worry of political consequences. That move dashed gay-rights supporters’ hopes that the special legislative session might give the bill another chance of making it to the House floor, where its bipartisan support would allow it to move to the governor’s desk and be signed into law.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat who called the special session, said he was disappointed the bill did not make it to the floor.

“That’s what Coloradans deserved and also what would have kept faith with our constitutional obligation to support equal rights,” Hickenlooper said in a statement.

Supporters of the bill packed the committee room Monday night in hopes of willing the bill forward. Even Tim Gill, a wealthy donor to gay-rights causes and to Democrats — and someone who rarely makes public appearances — was in the audience.

Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, the sponsor of the bill, said it felt like deja vu to be presenting the bill for the fourth time before a committee in 2012.

“This is an issue that in 20 years or less people are going to look back and say, ‘Why was this an issue?’ ” Ferrandino said. “This is going to happen. It’s just a question of when it’s going to happen.”

Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, testifying for civil union supporters, called the bill “what we all know to be the right thing to do.”

“Which side of history are you going to be on?” he asked committee members.

El Paso County Republican Party vice chairman David Williams called the bill an “end run around the constitution,” and James Flynn, chancellor of the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, said the legislation was “a rash reaction to obvious political pressure from special-interest groups.”

The bill’s defeat capped several days of intense partisan warfare, marked by Republican-backed radio ads and robocalls attacking Hickenlooper for calling the special session.

Hickenlooper called the
special session after the House failed to debate Senate Bill 2, which would have created civil unions for same-sex couples, even though there were enough votes to pass it. In the crossfire over the issue, the Republican-controlled House killed about 30 other bills that would have passed otherwise.

House Republicans have never before attacked Hickenlooper as strongly as they have the past few days, and many Republicans have frequently praised the governor, who says he tries to avoid partisan fights.

Last week, when Hickenlooper was told that McNulty accused him of coordinating with the Obama campaign on the issue of civil unions and had Obama campaign operatives meeting in the governor’s office, Hickenlooper broke into laughter, asking reporters whether they were joking.

But McNulty doubled down on the accusation Monday, saying, “If I were accused of making a decision because of President Obama’s campaign strategy, I would have laughed nervously too.”

Some of the bills killed last week were saved at the last minute by grafting them onto other bills headed to the governor’s desk, but some didn’t make it. Hickenlooper called the session to address six of those issues — along with civil unions.

Conservative group Compass Colorado launched a radio ad attacking Hickenlooper and Democrats for focusing on “same-sex marriage” instead of jobs.

Asked why he assigned the bill to House state affairs instead of the Judiciary Committee, where it passed during the regular legislative session that ended Wednesday, McNulty spoke of the need for efficiency.

“This is Gov. Hickenlooper’s special session that he called for the purpose of passing same-sex marriage,” the speaker said. “From our perspective, our side is focused on job creation and economic recovery.”

“They were so dead-set on killing a bill around equality — making sure that every family has equal access to the law — that they killed many jobs bills,” he said, pointing to bills that would fund $55 million in water infrastructure projects across the state and stabilize unemployment insurance rates for businesses.

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